Angie's 3D Design Blog

I decided to begin with the back plate of my BOSS pedal. It was slow-going at first, getting used to creating shapes from a real-world example, and to figuring out how to best translate calliper measurements to the drawing. It looks straightforward, but turned out to be tricky in places. Simple offsets don't always work here, likely due to imperfections in the way this enclosure was manufactured. For example, the width of the casing wall is different on all four sides.  Also, the fillets on the rubber backing are different at the top than at the bottom. Here are a few images illustrating my process. Casing wall, bottom view. Note differences in wall thickness: Metal back-plate with screw holes, sunken level with the casing wall: Addition of the rubber backing: Using Boolean Difference to create the negative space within the rubber backing. Here you can see the difference between the fillet shapes at the top compared with the...

After a test run with the cutter, blade re-adjustment due to the knife being set too low, and then more test runs....  SUCCESS! Then seeding for daaaayyyzzzz....  Luckily I cut four copies of my design, because seeding them meant breaking three... It was a lengthy, delicate process and was easy to tear corners.  Fourth time was a charm! Wrapping proved to be the biggest challenge. I set the vinyl on and carefully peeled it off about five times before I was satisfied with placement. The biggest lesson learned was next time to add some sacrificial registration pieces to my design so that I can precisely line it up with the surface. In this case, the placement won't matter too much, since there will be knobs, bolts and washers covering up any small imperfections in placement.  Ta da..... Complete, with knobs and fixtures:

A more refined sketch since my last post, cut to the top, bottom and side dimensions of the enclosure for testing:  The trickiest part proved to be the measuring of the metal box, due to the beveled edges, and the slight angle of the sides (the bottom length and width are larger than the top).  Here is how the Rhino drawing looks so far: The second biggest challenge here is all the trimming involved! Discerning negative from positive space amid so many overlapping lines is taking time. Green circles represent the actual size of the knobs that will be covering the design, whereas the smaller circles within them indicate the size of the actual hole in the metal box. Stay tuned for the final drawing.... OK, finally! After much troubleshooting with the graphics, trimming and joining, here it is.  Curves: Hatched:

An object that is dissectible, whose parts can be measured within 0.001 of an inch, and then can be re-assembled to it's original condition? My choice is a Boss LS-2 Line Selector effect pedal: The LS-2 is a rugged, portable electro-mechanical device (aka. guitar pedal, effect pedal, aka. 'stomp box') that allows the user to engage one or more other devices with a press of their foot, hands-free. This is one of about 100 devices made by the same company(BOSS) with the same form factor.  Photos taken at different angles: Since I work with pedals all the time and build them at home, I may be able to put this exercise into practical use, which is why I chose this object. This style of pedal interests me specifically because I have ideas for modifications to it, and this assignment will provide a base model for me to work with so that I can begin conceptualizing future modifications in a precise way. 

Outside of school, one of my various side projects involves helping my husband design and build guitar effect pedals. So for me it was a no-brainer to choose a metal pedal enclosure as the surface for this project.  Here's what a finished guitar pedal looks like:   These are some graphics I did awhile back for the 'Imperial Fuzz' - Russian themed, for the vintage Russian transistors inside. The graphic was done in Adobe Illustrator and then printed onto the enclosure with a special printer. As you can see, the ink is beginning to wear off in places. So this project is a perfect opportunity to test vinyl, which could be a great option on its own, or as a stencil. Here is the blank enclosure I will be using for this project:   I began by having a look at all my earlier sketches and considering some of the feedback I received in class, which mainly centred around bringing in some of the different patterns and shapes from my various designs and simplifyin...